We were on vacation, sauntering up the west coast, Dan and I. For lunch on the plane between San Francisco and Portland, we ate apples and cheddar cheese washed down with beer from a local microbrewery. Are you twenty-one? the flight attendant asked me. My bangs were swept off my face in a tiny barrette. I convinced her of my age and she offered us refills. You like this place already, I said to Dan. Outside the plane window, Mount Saint Helens loomed steamily.

Later that afternoon I stood outside of an indie bookshop in SW Portland on the phone with my father. I learned that my grandmother had died the night before. At ninety-four, after a decade-long, slow losing battle with dementia, she finally worked herself out of the world.

Dan and I continued a truncated version of our trip, leaving from Seattle on Wednesday morning.

Grandma was white-haired, small, and wrinkly. She dressed in outrageous patterns, wide seventies collars, paisley prints, polka-dotted scarves. She was a singer, a tuneful hummer, a toe-tapper. Even in the nursing home, she tapped her tiny feet against the footrests of her wheelchair, her face bright, smiling vacantly. She squeezed our palms when we held her hand. She was the only grandparent I ever knew.

She taught me this song when I was very young. She sang it in French. We sang it in a round:

Frère Jacques,
Frère Jacques,
Dormez vous?
Dormez vous?
Sonnez les matines,
Sonnez les matines,
Din, din, don!
Din, din, don!

She may be solely responsible for my Francophilia.

Last night, after the wake, my brother TJ, and Dan and I, decided to bake a cake using a recipe she’d written out on an index card years and years ago.

Prune Cake

1 1/2 lbs. prunes

dough:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
1 egg

topping:
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. butter

13″ x 9″ pan

Preheat oven to 400. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form. Beat the egg, add milk and vanilla, and add to the flour mixture, beating vigorously for about a minute until smooth. Spread batter, using spoon or scraper. Arrange prune halves on top overlapping slightly. Add topping. Bake 35 minutes or until golden.